Ocean
by PandaBearPotter
Summary: AU: When Annabeth, Princess of Crete, was separated from Percy Jackson, Captain of a band of pirates, she thought that love had ended. It's funny how endings are just new beginnings in disguise, isn't it? Sequel to Sea.


**I'm sorry. I left all of my wonderful readers dangling off an edge of a cliff like Percabeth dangling above Tartarus. It was fun! I feel like Rick Riordan right now. Only, he writes better. And, he's a guy. And… you know what, before I kill my writing mood even further, I'm going to get started. This is Ocean, everyone! I hope you like it. I don't own, and so we go!**

 _Prologue_

He didn't know his name.

It was supposed to be a quiet night in for him. He was sitting on the tiny beach next to his tiny house on this tiny island in a massive ocean. The sand beneath his skin was warm and cold at the same time. The sound that drifted from the crashing waves soothed his ears and his pounding heart. He came here at least once every week without fail. It was the only way to keep him in check.

Here on this tiny island, with one, single, lonely inhabitant, it was easy.

Easy to go insane, that is.

It starts with thinking. He thought about the way things were, he thought about the way things would be, he thought about the way things are. He thought about his loneliness and what he could do to make his lonely future more enjoyable. With thinking about the future, he thought about the past. With thinking about the past, a simple question formed in his mind. Why?

That was the second step to going insane: the questions. Why was he here? How did he get here? Where were his parents? What was going to happen to him? Why did things end up like this? Did he deserve to be here alone? What had he done? How could he earn forgiveness? Could he make it back to civilization? Was there any way he could fix this?

With questions, inevitably, you try to find answers. Trying to find answers and making up solutions in his head brought him what he thought was peace. It was really desperation. He went through every day getting worse, and worse, and worse, and suddenly, he was angry. Slowly he became angry with his thinking. Angry with his questions. But most of all, he was angry with the answers he gave himself.

The thing with anger is that it doesn't help anything. All it does is eat slowly away at your being like an acid. This acid, well, once it spilled, he couldn't contain it. Anger coursed through his veins and robbed him of everything he tried to be, all of the virtues he strived to have. The acid that ran through his body finally reached the top link in his chain, and once it was eaten through? The entire thing fell.

If anger was acid then insanity was falling.

And the lonely inhabitant on this tiny island was falling fast.

It took him a few days to realize it, and the weightless feeling of stepping off the cliff was gone. Now, he was grappling for any ledges and rocks he could grasp to slow his descent. The beach was his ledge, slowing his fall for a little while every week.

But on this quiet night, the beach became rocks strapped to him, pulling him faster and farther down into the abyss of chaos.

On this quiet night, he found something in the ocean. At first, it looked like a reflection of one of the many burning stars. Soon, it came closer, and he was able to make out its shape. A pristine glass bottle floated calmly in the water, bobbing gently as the waves carried it to shore. He couldn't believe his eyes. Could this be his savior?

Tossing aside irrational fear for irrational hope, he sprinted into the waves, scooping up the bottle. He cradled the glass close to his chest as he stumbled to shore. Collapsing in the sand, his hands trembled as he pulled the cork from the mouth of the bottle. He grinned, smile glowing with a maniacal light. Fumbling fingers drew a fine white piece of parchment from the bottle, and hungry ice blue eyes devoured the words, scrawled in beautiful handwriting on the parchment.

 _I held out for as long as I could._

 _I did, I swear. But I couldn't keep myself from you. You've always been on the edge of my mind, following me around like a shadow._

 _Always there. Never here._

 _Gods, there are so many things I should have done. I should have stayed, I should have taken you with me, I should have…_

 _I can't stop dwelling on the past. I'm falling into the same hole I was before you came… Help me. It doesn't matter anymore that I can win a fight with humans, all that matters is that I can't win a fight with my thoughts and emotions._

 _I need you, Captain._

 _Wise Girl_

It must be someone from his past, he thought. Before he couldn't remember anything but the previous day, before the island pushed him off the edge.

Who was Wise Girl? Who was Captain? What did it all mean? How did it fit to his past?

Staring into the sand, he traced words with his finger, like he did every time he came. Stirring up sand seemed to stir up memories.

W-I-S-E G-I-R-L

…nothing.

He screamed, a sound of pure agony that stretched and reverberated for miles around the tiny island. Tears stained the letter, blurring all of the words except for one: Captain.

Was it possible that he was Captain?

All of these days, weeks, months, years spent struggling to grasp one simple fact: His name. Could he finally figure it out?

C-A-P

His finger trembled and slipped on the P, making an O instead.

He knew the letter O.

That was the first letter, the closest he had ever gotten to his identity.

A wave pushed the sand back into a useless lump. Anger and hope mixed in his veins.

C-A-P-T-A-I-N

Switch the A and I.

Put an O in front of the C.

O-C-A-P-T-I-A-N

Switch the T and the first A.

O-C-T-P-A-I-A-N.

The P is wrong. It should be a… a…

Frustration welled inside him, and he screamed again, letting the waves scratch away at the word in the sand. Tears dribbled onto the mauled remains of the unrecognizable word.

That's when he saw it.

O-C-T-A-V-I-A-N.

His tears were forgotten as a laugh escaped his chapped lips. Soon, he couldn't stop, and the laugh became evil, crazy.

Insane.

Octavian.

He knew his name.

 **Did you like it? Leave a review to tell me how you feel about the chapter. School just started, so updates will be less often than they would be during summer, but I'll make it happen. Bye for now!**

 **PandaBearPotter**


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